skip to main |
skip to sidebar
From CNN:
Syria has met first chemical weapons destruction deadline, OPCW says. Syria has destroyed all its declared chemical weapons mixing, filling and production facilities, and all of the chemical weapons at inspected sites have been placed under seal, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Thursday.....
From BusinessInsider:
CONFIRMED: Israel Launched Strikes On Syrian Missile Sites, Damascus....
....The Lebanese government news agency reported that six Israeli aircraft flew through Lebanese airspace along the coast north of Beirut on Wednesday....
......"During the night, we noticed much aircraft activity," an eyewitness told a Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal news outlet. "At a certain point, we were woken up by the sound of blasts and we saw a large fire and many explosions at the agricultural institute. Military and security forces arrived at the scene, put out the flames, and closed off the entire area for kilometers."......
From WorldAffairs:
...Saudi-Backed Salafists Returning To Iran’s Border? The Iranian government and the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in particular are paying a price with the lives of Iranian soldiers inside Iranian territory for their support of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
This seems to be the gist of the statement from Jaish al-Adl (the army of justice) that was issued after it claimed responsibility for the deadly Sept. 26 attack in the town of Saravan in Iran. The attack left 14 Iranian border guards dead. Five others were wounded.....
From Reuters:
....Etihad Airways, a carrier based in the United Arab Emirates, has suspended flights to Libya's capital for security reasons, the airline said on Thursday.
"Our assessment of the existing situation at Tripoli airport does not provide the level of assurance we require to ensure safe operation of our flights," the Abu Dhabi-based airline said in a statement....
From YahooNews:
...Suicide bombers hit Iraq security as attacks kill 35. Three suicide bombings killed 14 Iraqi security force members overnight, officials said Wednesday, the deadliest in a series of attacks that left 35 people dead in two days.
The attacks come as Iraq witnesses its worst violence since 2008, a surge in unrest that has killed more than 5,400 people this year that has persisted despite authorities having carried out a swathe of operations and implemented tightened security measures.
Since the beginning of 2013, AFP has recorded just 16 days in which there were no deaths from violence in Iraq, the most recent of which was May 24........
From TimeMag:
Zakaria: The Saudis Are Mad? Tough! Why we shouldn't care that the world's most irresponsible country is displeased at the U.S. Saudi Arabia's objections to the Obama Administration's policies toward Syria and Iran are not framed by humanitarian concerns for the people of those countries. They are rooted in a pervasive anti-Shi'ite ideology. Riyadh has long treated all other versions and sects of Islam as heresy and condoned the oppression of those groups. A 2009 report from Human Rights Watch details the ways in which the Saudi government, clerics, religious police and schools systematically discriminate against the local Shi'ite population, including arrests, beatings and, on occasion, the use of live ammunition. (And not just the Shi'ites. In March 2012, Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti issued a fatwa declaring that it was "necessary to destroy all the churches in the Arabian Peninsula.")...........
From AlJazeera:
.... Headscarves make a comeback in Turkish parliament. Four Turkish MPs wore headscarves to parliament on Thursday, one month after Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lifted a 90-year-old ban on public employees wearing headscarves to work. The ban is still in place for the judiciary, police, and military.
Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) accused the AKP lawmakers of "exploiting religion" and trying to undermine Turkey's history of secularism.
The last time an MP donned a headscarf in parliament was in 1999, when Merve Kavakci was booed out of her swearing-in ceremony for wearing a headscarf.
AKP MP Mustafa Kemal Serbetcioglu tweeted the below image of MPs Sevde Bayazit Kacar and Nurcan Dalbudak in parliament on Thursday.
From AtlanticCouncil:
Russian troops stationed in Armenia could openly side with it in case of a renewed Armenian-Azerbaijani war for Nagorno-Karabakh, according to their top commander, Colonel Andrey Ruzinsky.
“If Azerbaijan decides to restore jurisdiction over Nagorno-Karabakh by force the [Russian] military base may join in the armed conflict in accordance with the Russian Federation’s obligations within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO),” Ruzinksy told the Russian Defense Ministry’s “Krasnaya Zvezda” newspaper in a recent interview.....
From GuardianUK (video at link)
Two filmmakers spent almost a decade reporting the greatest taboo subject in Kurdish society: female genital mutilation. Nabaz Ahmed and Shara Amin persuaded people to talk about the effects of FGM and the film they made helped get the practice outlawed in 2011. And in the last few years the number of girls being mutilated in Kurdistan has fallen by over 60%. The story of their decade-long fight against FGM has been made into a documentary by the Guardian and BBC Arabic....
From Bloomberg:
...Iraqi Kurds May Build Direct Oil-Export Pipe in 18 Months. Iraqi Kurdistan plans to build a million-barrel-a-day oil pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port in as little as 18 months, providing an export link that totally bypasses Iraq’s existing network.
“Between 18 months to two years from now the new pipeline from our region to Ceyhan will be ready,” Ashti Hawrami, the Kurdish Regional Government’s natural resources minister, told reporters at an energy conference in Istanbul today....
From CNN:
Gunmen seize truck carrying more than $50 million in cash in Libya. Security forces in Libya are searching for heavily armed men who seized a truck carrying more than $50 million in cash in the city of Sirte, the state news agency LANA reported Tuesday.
The group of 10 men intercepted the truck, which was carrying 53 million Libyan dinars (about $43 million) and another 12 million dinars (around $10 million) in euros and U.S. dollars Monday evening........
From FirstPost:
...Qatar Holding has built small stakes in Bank of America(BAC.N) and Samsung Electronics, two sources familiar with the matter said, as the wealth fund continues on its strategy of picking minority stakes in large global companies. The fund, one of the world’s most prolific investors, has a stake worth about $1 billion in Bank of America, while its Samsung stake is worth between $200-$300 million, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the investments have not been publicly disclosed.....
From InvestigativeProject:
Turkey Plays Host to Embattled MB Officials. As if further evidence of Turkey's Islamist agenda is needed, the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch points to a recent article saying Turkey has become the focal point for Brotherhood deliberations and meetings following Egypt's crackdown on the movement.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped up to challenge "the foreign legitimacy" of Egypt's interim government after the army ousted President Mohamed Morsi in July, writes Mohammad Abdel Kader of the Al Arabiya Institute for Studies. The intervention followed weeks of protests which drew tens of millions of Egyptians angered by Morsi's emphasis on consolidating Islamist power at the expense of Egypt's crumbling economy and infrastructure.
There are reports that Turkey supplied the Egyptian Brotherhood with weapons, Abdel Kader writes, and he notes that a Turkish intelligence officer was arrested in Egypt.
Brotherhood officials from throughout the world met in Turkey at least twice since July and discussed strategies for coping with their failures in Egypt. They also discussed the effect the purge in Egypt would have on Brotherhood franchises in Tunisia, Sudan, Jordan and Algeria, Abdel Kader writes......
From WeaselZippers:
Mohamed Elibiary Compares Egypt’s Morsi To Nelson Mandela.
If you have comments about this please direct them to the Dept Of Homeland Security Comment line at 202-282-8495........
From YahooNews:
Syria war stirs decades-old tensions in Tripoli. In the impoverished Bab al-Tebbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighbourhoods of Lebanon's second city Tripoli, the war in neighbouring Syria has aggravated decades-old sectarian and political tensions.
Regional and local powers have taken advantage of the situation, arming poor fighters in the neighbourhoods to fight a proxy war over Syria.
Jabal Mohsen, where most of the population belongs to President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, has long backed the Damascus regime.
Majority-Sunni Bab el-Tebbaneh, however, supports the rebels who have been fighting to overthrow Assad for the past 31 months.
But sectarian fighting in the two districts started long before: since 2008, there have been 18 rounds of fighting, killing more than 200 and wounding 3,000 others.
The most recent clashes between the two, fought across the aptly-named Syria Street that divides them, started on October 21, killing 14 people........
I like it that Canada is defending what's right. I put myself in the shoes of victims who have suffered because of Iran's atrocities and can feel their pain. However, the property of the Iranian embassy and its diplomats in Canada, by international law, belongs to Iran and Canada has no option but to protect those properties ... even if it is vomit inducing to do so.
This is one of those times that one can be proud of Canada and Canada's integrity.
Stewart Bell writing at NationalPost:
....Canadian government defends Iran’s ‘diplomatic assets’ against lawsuits by terror victims.
A year after suspending relations with Iran and designating the regime a state sponsor of terrorism, the Canadian government was in court on Thursday to defend Tehran’s diplomatic assets from lawsuits by terror victims.
The awkward scene unfolded in a Toronto courtroom where victims of Iranian-backed terrorist organizations are trying to collect damages from the Islamic republic under the newly enacted Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act.
While Iran has ignored the lawsuits, the Canadian government has stepped in to argue that the Iranian embassy, official residence, staff quarters and two bank accounts are “diplomatic assets” of Tehran and cannot be awarded to victims of terrorism.
“The concern of the Attorney-General of Canada is interference with diplomatic property,” Jacqueline Dais-Visca, a Department of Justice lawyer, told the court. “This is about Canada exercising its obligations under international law.”.......
Why am I not surprised?! It's to be expected all over as the the muslim population has grown to that magic number and continue growing. Learn to accept the facts and STFU. You are helpless against the wishes of your politicians and your government. The muslim immigrants are here to create their own little shariah states and you will let them ..... unless you want your head to be chopped off.
Having enemies around them is not enough for Israel. They want to alienate many more around the world. Just because the leaders of the Judeo-Christian nations are with Israel in their efforts to destroy Syria does not mean that the citizens of those countries do too.
The excuse given again by the Israelis is the oft repeated lie "weapons might go to Hezbollah" .... yeah we are that gullible we will believe it. With Syria's army needing all the weapons they can get, they will suddenly decide to do without the best and instead send them to Hezbollah. Right! Sounds logical doesn't it?
From CNN:
....Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia this week, an Obama administration official told CNN on Thursday.
An explosion at a missile storage site in the area was reported in the Middle Eastern press, but an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government.
The target, according to the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information.
There was some confusion about the timing of the attack, with some reports saying it happened Wednesday, and others saying Thursday.
When asked for comment, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman told CNN: "We don't refer to foreign reports."
Israel has been accused several other times this year of launching airstrikes inside Syria, including once in January. In the January incident, a U.S. official said Israeli fighter jets bombed a Syrian convoy suspected of moving weapons to Hezbollah...........
The disgusting swine in USA's politics wallowing in the sewers of their Muslim overlords. How disgusting can these people get!
Don't miss how the Republican idiot from Tenn. Bob Corker is delusional about how the "opposition" are the good guys and that they are also fighting Al Qaeda. Is there any difference between the guys who are the Muslim Brotherhood tools (the opposition) and Al Qaeda?
How can America survive with such fools as their lawmakers?
Julian Pecquet writing at TheHill:
Senators blast Obama's Syria envoy. The lawmakers who went out on a limb to support deeply unpopular strikes against Syria tore into President Obama's envoy to the war-plagued country on Thursday.
Both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – the only panel to approve the use of force – deluged the administration with criticism during Ambassador Robert Ford's first Capitol Hill appearance since Obama called off military strikes last month. They called the administration's reluctance to fully back the rebels battling Bashar Assad an “embarrassment” and accused the White House of lacking a strategy to bring to an end the conflict that has been raging since March 2011.
“I'd like to hear, in some setting, the detail of what our effort is,” said panel Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a foreign policy hawk. “Because I just don't get the sense that we are headed anywhere.”
Ford vehemently defended the administration's support for the opposition.
“There isn't a person on my team at the State Department who doesn't feel frustrated by the Syrian problem in general,” he said. “But I have to say, we do provide support – we provide a lot of support.”
Ford went on to list humanitarian efforts and democracy-building efforts. His revelation on Thursday that the administration for the first time provided trucks to the opposition – rebels had so far had to rent their transportation – however, angered lawmakers rather than impressing them.
“You all were going to deliver those trucks when I was there in August,” said Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), the top Republican on the panel. “Do you feel good about the strategy that we have now, with these people that we have left out on a limb and told them we were going to support their efforts against this regime and against al Qaeda?”
Ford placed some of the blame on the western-backed rebels.....
Agenda 21 .... it's not a conspriracy. It's an elaborate tool designed to control you even further. And, its about time you learnt more about it if you haven't already.
More here, here here, and lots more on the net.
Before the activity by the NSA on the private lives of world leaders came to light ... would you have believed if somebody had told you that even world leaders' private lives are being monitored by the USA? Don't be shocked or surprised by the satanic activists who want to de-populate the world of humans. Just as so much evil happen under the guise of "social justice" so do many similar acts happen under the guise of "Agenda 21" or the myriad of other titles they have given the same old plan ... all of which are supposed to bring the world's population as one whole entity, and that is supposedly to be done because we are good people and want to look after those less unfortunate than us by us getting to the level of the less fortunate.
Our schools are already following part of the plan. Nobody is at the top of the classroom just as nobody is at the bottom. All get the same grades. A "pass" or a "fail". It's communism molded to look like democracy.
As far as I am concerned .... I am suspicious of anything and everything that says "green" because that's a color that's numero uno in islam...... and many of the organizations connected to Agenda 21 are using "green" in their verbiage.
Rosa Koire, an activist against Agenda 21 has written on the plan and she's titled the book "Behind the Green Mask". Worth listening to what she has to say.
Parents of this little misguided monster should be made responsible and put behind bars. When kids go wrong, nine times out of ten, the fault lies with the parents .... no matter how much they or anybody else denies that to be so.
From NYDailyNews:
An 11-year-old boy accused of bringing a gun, knives and 400 rounds of ammunition to his school last week yelled obscenities and fought off officers after a Washington judge ordered him to remain in custody Tuesday.
The sixth-grader at Vancouver's Frontier Middle School fiercely marched before a judge, hands swinging, before tearing away in an explosive, explicative-laced tantrum.
"Don't f---king touch me. Get the f--- off me!" he screamed as a detention officer tried to guide him out of the room........
........According to a declaration of probable cause, the boy told police just after his Oct. 23 arrest that "a voice in his head" told him to kill a fellow student. He said it was in retaliation for the student allegedly calling one of his friends "gay."
But prosecutors now say the boy planned to shoot several people after school let out — not just one as previously thought........
This is an important documentary to watch. It was released about a year ago, and if you haven't watch it yet, allocate 90 minutes of your time to listen to it. You don't actually have to watch it .... I usually just listen to such educational documentaries while doing something else.
Explosive documentary “The Project” debuts this week on TheBlaze TV.Monday, Sep 24, 2012.
Then the focus of the Judas countries would shift from the Middle East to the areas of Africa that need our attention. Alas, the poor, unlucky people there were born in the wrong corner of the world.
From EuroNews:
....The bodies of over 90 migrants, mostly women and children who died of thirst, have been found in the Sahara in northern Niger.
Their vehicles broke down as they tried to cross the desert. The migrants dispersed to seek water. Their bodies were found scattered, some reportedly partly eaten by animals.
The group had left Niger’s northernmost mining town Arlit, headed for Algeria. Around 20 people survived the ordeal, some walking kilometres through no-man’s land to raise the alarm.
The route across the Sahara is used by migrants from Niger, one of the world’s poorest countries, and further afield, many hoping to reach Europe.
Hundreds of those who make it to the Mediterranean have drowned trying to cross in recent months. The tragedies have prompted renewed debate in Europe about large-scale illegal migration from Africa and the dangers of human trafficking.
That should be the question. Dimwits in the Canadian police force, even today ....won't be able to tell you what's "honor killing" or what's "taqiyyah" or what's "fatwa" or what's "jihad" etc. And, how many of the crime investigators knew about "honor killing" throughout the last two decades or so? If you said "probably none" .... you would be probably right.
I hate it when I see records like the one cited below which purports to give an accurate figure. Unfortunately, the gullible use such figures to make statements like "crimes like these are non-existent and only bigots and racists blow them out of proportion."
Sue Montgomery and Philip Authier writing at MontrealGazette:
....Honour crimes have been committed in Quebec in all communities and the government needs to act on the growing phenomenon, Quebec’s Conseil du statut de la femme said Wednesday as it released a report careful not to stigmatize any one group.......
.......More has to be done, the report says, to protect vulnerable women and girls subjected to genital mutilations, virginity testing, forced marriages and excessive control.
But of the 17 incidents identified as honour crimes in Canada since 1991 and examined in the report, all involved stabbing, strangulation, shooting and beating. They affected 26 victims, five of whom died, according to the 167-page report that makes seven recommendations to the government.
In its reaction to the report, the provincial government was quick to offer up its controversial charter of Quebec values — which would ban religious headgear on public servants — as a way of countering the problem.
“I wouldn’t make a direct link between the two, but the symbolism of the charter may help us preventing these kinds of crimes,” said Bernard Drainville, the Parti Québécois cabinet minister in charge of selling the proposed law. “The charter sends a very strong signal that equality between women and men is an important value, a non-negotiable value in Quebec society.”......
.........Miville-Dechêne said the council’s report was already late coming out and just happens to be released at the same time as the divisive debate about the charter zeros in on equality between men and women.
“We felt we had to publish this for the sake of the women we want to protect,” she said in an interview. “How many months could we sit on this?
“Being silent is not an option.”
Honour crimes existed in Quebec back in the days when unmarried, pregnant girls were sent into hiding until they gave birth, the council said. But more recently they are committed within communities with patriarchal cultures, such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
The crimes are different from conjugal violence in that entire communities or other members of the family can be complicit....
....In the case of the Shafia daughters, they had sought help from child services officials, and complained to teachers, classmates and extended family, but somehow fell through the cracks.....
A computer inside our brain is better than what IBM, Microsoft, Apple or anybody else can ever build ... but unfortunately, we have dumped it on the rubbish heap. Gotta wonder how many more such priceless devices are inside us and we don't know it.
From UNC HealthCare:
UNC neuroscientists discover new ‘mini-neural computer’ in the brain.
Dendrites, the branch-like projections of neurons, were once thought to be passive wiring in the brain. But now researchers at UNC have shown that dendrites actively process information, multiplying the brain’s computing power. The finding could help researchers better understand neurological disorders.
Dendrites, the branch-like projections of neurons, were once thought to be passive wiring in the brain. But now researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that these dendrites do more than relay information from one neuron to the next. They actively process information, multiplying the brain’s computing power.
“Suddenly, it’s as if the processing power of the brain is much greater than we had originally thought,” said Spencer Smith, PhD, an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine.
His team’s findings, published October 27 in the journal Nature, could change the way scientists think about long-standing scientific models of how neural circuitry functions in the brain, while also helping researchers better understand neurological disorders........
Armenia has to take care of their own borders from the Muslim nations around them, and should not concede to give in even by an inch. It's a good thing they have Russia as an ally. Far better than relying on Judeo-Christian nations who are now in bed with Muslim nations.
From WorldNews:
European Parliamentarian: Armenia has to withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh. The United Nations and the greater majority of the countries all around the world did not recognize any right of Armenia as occupying power in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Slovenian Member of the European Parliament, Ivo Vajgl said replying to The European Azerbaijan Society's survey on Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Vajgl noted that Armenia is violating international law and has to withdraw its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Unfortunately enough, Armenia is supported by Russia who has its troops stationed in this country. Both Armenia and Russia are behaving in an unacceptable way and are destabilizing the situation in the entire region," Vajgl said.
According to the Slovenian MEP, the principle of territorial integrity of countries, within their internationally recognized borders, is a core principle of peace and stability in the world.
"If a country, a partner within the Eastern Partnership is in breach of these principles, this certainly represents a problem for the Eastern Partnership as a whole, and should be regarded as an urgent and pressing issue. Every person who has been expelled from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan should get the possibility to return home," Vajgl said.
He noted that the partnership between Azerbaijan and the European Union does not end with the issue of energy supply for Western European countries.
"Azerbaijan should be seen as a country with extraordinary importance for regional stability. This is the reason why the EU is interested in positive developments as far as the so-called frozen conflicts in the region are concerned," Vajgl said. "The OSCE Minsk Group invested a lot of effort in an attempt to find a solution for the Nagorno-Karabakh problem but obviously, it is not a problem which could be dealt with just on the level of diplomacy. It is a prominent political problem, which only can be solved with a cooperation of all countries, which are their sticks in the situation in the Caucasus."
Deplorable! With the influx of students from cultures that think women should dress a certain way and if they don't they are asking to be raped, Canada has opened her doors wide to the kind of misogyny this country has never ever seen. With the immigration numbers the way they are, and with plans to increase those numbers, one can expect, sadly, to see such crimes against women to increase many fold.
Moreover, with the "rape chants" brought to light lately, where even female students join in without giving a thought to what they are chanting about, will be seen by those who view these things in a completely different light than Westerns are used to, as an "invitation to rape."
Katie Hyslop writing at thetyee:
.....March draws attention to rape culture on UBC campus.
Two students organizing a Take Back the Night rally and march on the University of British Columbia's Vancouver campus next week say the recent string of sexual assaults, combined with the Commerce Undergraduate Society's controversial rape chant, point to a rape culture on campus that the administration is ignoring.
But the university says its opened several channels of dialogue with the campus community and encourage students, staff, and faculty to come to them with concerns about campus culture and safety.
A grassroots global movement, Take Back The Night events are anti-violence against women marches that originated in the United States in the 1970s. Although typically women-only events, the UBC organizers Emily Monaghan and Rain invite people who identify as men to attend the rally and march on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
"We really want to focus on male allyship because men are a part of this problem, and by confronting and deconstructing sexism within themselves, and by becoming part of the movement and not impeding upon women's voices and spaces, we want to teach man what good allyship is (and) how they can contribute," Monaghan, a first year environmental science and sustainability student, told The Tyee.....
Sarah Boesveld writing at NationalPost:
‘You’re blaming the victim’: Contentious discussions of campus rape pit sexes against each other.
In the days since the latest in a string of reported sexual assaults at the University of British Columbia, posters have cropped up across campus: “Don’t be a creep! Learn how to manage your sex drive.”
“Recognize that many women are bombarded with sexual interest,” reads another. “Don’t be a rapist! Someone walking alone is NOT an invitation for you to rape or assault.”
It’s a fraught time on campus as the RCMP pursue a suspect linked to all three attacks, the third and latest on Saturday, when a 17-year-old girl reported being accosted and dragged into a nearby wooded area.
But critics say the signs — their source is unclear — also make a sweeping assumption: that male students, or any man on campus, may be a rapist-in-waiting. And they characterize a tense cultural conversation about rape and sexual assault that has rolled to a boil as of late.
Last week, Slate columnist Emily Yoffe stoked uproar when she said that female university and college students ought not to get black-out drunk if they wanted to avoid being sexually attacked since rapists tend to prey on women in vulnerable states. She was called a “rape apologist,” and accused of victim-blaming at a time when multiple horrible tales of rape and sexual assault have captured headlines and stirred emotions.....
Never too late to join the party. The salafis in Tunisia are funded by Qatar. The wahhabis by Saudi Arabia. The country's mosques have also become madrasas just like in Pakistan.
From Reuters:
....Suicide bomber attacks Tunisian resort town. A suicide bomber blew himself up in the Tunisian tourist resort of Sousse on Wednesday, the first such assault in more than a decade in a country now battling Islamist militants boosted by chaos in neighbouring Libya.
Police foiled another attack when they arrested a would-be suicide bomber at former President Habib Bourguiba's tomb in the seaside town of Monastir, and detained five other people in Sousse thought to be plotting assaults, security sources said.....
From NOWmedia:
... Tunisia arrests 5 Salafist "terrorists" over attacks. Tunisian security forces arrested five Salafist "terrorists" implicated in two failed attacks on Wednesday in resort towns on Tunisia's eastern coast, the interior ministry announced.
"The interior ministry's special forces have arrested five terrorists with direct links to the assailants who tried to carry out simultaneous terrorist attacks in Sousse and Monastir," a statement said.
Ministry spokesperson Mohamed Ali Laroui said those behind the attacks belonged to Ansar al-Sharia, Tunisia's main Salafist movement, which the authorities have designated a "terrorist organization" with ties to Al-Qaeda.
He did not specify whether the 18-year-old man detained on Wednesday morning as he was trying to carry out a suicide attack at the tomb of former president Habib Bourguiba in Monastir was among the five arrested..........
Yup ... you read that right! Only in Canada! If you can't find employment, do some dirty deed which will find you in prison and the govt. will not only give you three meals a day, you will also get a nice warm bed and when you decide to move a tool from point 1 to point 2 or twist the dial on a washing machine from "0" to another number ... our glorious government will also award you with a wage. And, if you don't like the wage you are given, you have the right to go on "strike" .... wonder if there are Labor Unions in prisons. Heard of other kind of unions in prisons... Labor Unions too probably coming soon?
Is it any wonder that the takers have taken over Canada? If our government is hell-bent on giving, why would the takers not take?
Maureen Brosnahan at CBCNews:
.....Inmates in Canadian prisons put strike on hold
Prisoners seek talks with Corrections Canada officials on pay cuts and other issues. Federal inmates who have been on strike in prisons across Canada since the beginning of this month have called a temporary halt to their actions.
The prisoners walked off their institutional jobs after the government reduced their pay by about 30 per cent as part of a cost-cutting measure.
In a letter sent to the federal commissioner of corrections, Don Head, the inmates are asking that officials begin discussions with them and their families over the pay cut and other changes underway in the correctional system.
“As people who live in the reality of incarceration and who are trying to return to the community as law-abiding citizens, my clients and other inmates have much to contribute to such a discussion,” wrote Todd Sloan, lawyer for several inmate committees across Canada, in the letter to Head.
“At the end of the day they believe that work refusals, albeit required in recent circumstances, can be harmful to all concerned if prolonged without resolution.”
Sloan said they have asked for a response from Don Head by Nov. 20. Sloan called this “a show of good faith” by the inmates who are looking for “a reasonable option” to open a discussion.
Until this month, the top level pay an inmate could earn was $6.90 a day, but only a small percentage get that. The average is $3 a day. That rate was set by the government in 1981. It was based on a review by a parliamentary committee and it factored in a deduction from inmates for the cost of room, board and clothing........
HAHAHAHHAHA! Good one to start the day with.
Carol J. Williams writing at LATimes
....Kremlin slips spying gadgets into G20 summit gift bags, newspapers say.
Russian hosts of the Group of 20 summit near St. Petersburg in September sent world leaders home with gifts designed to keep on giving: memory sticks and recharging cables programmed to spy on their communications, two Italian newspapers reported Tuesday.
A Kremlin spokesman denied the allegations reported by Il Corriere della Sera and La Stampa, both of which attributed their stories to findings of technical investigations ordered by the president of the European Council and carried out by German intelligence.
The USB thumb drives marked with the Russia G20 logo and the three-pronged European phone chargers were "a poisoned gift" from Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turin-based La Stampa [link in Italian] said in its report.
“They were Trojan horses designed to obtain information from computers and cellphones,” the paper said.
The bugging devices were included in gift bags given to all delegates who attended the Sept. 5-6 summit at the palace in Stelna, outside of St. Petersburg, the newspapers said.
Suspicions about the drives and rechargers were first raised by Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, Il Corriere della Sera [link in Italian] said in its front-page story.
Van Rompuy. from Belgium, ordered technical analysis of the devices by intelligence experts in Brussels and Bonn, the newspapers said. Initial investigation found "the USB sticks and the recharge cables are suitable for undercover detection of computer data and mobile phones," the Italian newspapers said Van Rompuy reported to G20 members in a confidential memo.
Further tests are underway on the devices, and any official response to the Russian government's alleged espionage attempts would depend on those findings, the articles said, quoting an unnamed European Union official.........
is as powerful as the Muslim Brotherhood of the United Kingdom. Now that the Muslim Brotherhood is out of fashion in Egypt, be prepared to feel the presence here in the West of guys who were involved in the now almost dead Egyptian MB. Those members will be inducted in the umpteen organizations of the MB even here in Canada ... because truth be told, the Canadian politicians are some of the most dimwitted in the world when it comes to Islam, Muslims and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood's various organizations going under benign names purporting to work miracles for "social justice" and their mosques mushrooming all over Canada, not only get a tax-exempt status but they are also able to milk funds from our crazy government.
This documentary should be sent around to all on your email list and to ensure that they have watched it, you should ask them pertinent questions from within the doc.
Educate the dumb idiots even at the risk of being called a racist, a crank or whatever.
and all because leaders in USA, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Italy and other supposedly "Judeo-Christian" nations are making it possible for the killing and persecution of Christians by arming and funding Muslim terrorists. The world has gone hopelessly mad at the hands of our Christian politicians whose chemical imbalances won't be cured now or ever.
Steven B. Nasatir, Prez of Jewish Federation-Chicago writing at TheWashingtonPost:
....Anti-Christian terror is everyone’s concern.
The persecution of any religious minority anywhere by anyone is an evil injustice. It requires all persons of conscience to speak out and, when possible, take action.
The upcoming 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht makes this an auspicious time to raise awareness about the contemporary violence targeting religious minorities and their places of worship. Of particular concern are attacks against Christian minorities that have occurred with alarming frequency from Syria to Egypt, from Iraq to Pakistan, and from Kenya to Sudan.
November 9 marks 75 years since the pogrom against Jews committed by mobs throughout the Nazi Reich. Often called Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” when rioters killed or injured hundreds of Jews; burned over 1,000 synagogues; destroyed 7,000 Jewish-owned shops and businesses; vandalized cemeteries and schools, and; sent 30,000 Jews to German concentration camps. It marked a turning point in the escalating campaign of persecution culminating in the Holocaust.
These events, seared into Jewish collective memory, make us doubly aware—and duty bound—to raise our voices when the deadly brew of religious bigotry and wanton violence are mixed.
Today in Syria, a once thriving Christian population—a community nearly as ancient as that country’s once great Jewish community—has been depopulated by 25 percent, according an estimate the Patriarch Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Laham shared with the BBC.
In September, The Associated Press reported that Syrian Christians in Maaloula—a community dating to the birth of Christianity and that still speaks Aramaic—were driven out or forcibly converted to Islam by rebels aligned with al-Qaeda.
“It is chaos, it is violence, it is blood, it is death. Life has been paralyzed. We have lost everything,” said Archbishop Theophile Georges Kassab of Homs.
In Egypt, some supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi last summer unleashed their rage against that nation’s Christians, a historic community constituting 20 percent of the country’s population. Mobs burned dozens of Christian schools, convents, monasteries, institutions, and churches of any, and all Christian denominations. And just days ago, gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire outside a Coptic Christian church during a wedding, murdering four, including an 8-year-old girl.
“It never happened before in history that such a big number of churches were attacked on one day,” Bishop Thomas, a Coptic Orthodox bishop in Assiut told Al Jazeera. “We normally used to have attacks once a month or so.”
As Kristallnacht teaches, the burning of houses of worship can be a red alert that worse is yet to come.
September saw the horrific Taliban bombing of Anglican worshippers in Pakistan, which took 85 lives, and, according to accounts shared by witnesses, the targeting for murder of Kenyan Christians—deliberately separated from others in a chilling reminder of Nazi “selections”—by al Shabaab terrorists in a Nairobi shopping mall.
Attacks like these have contributed to a decline in the Christian population in the Middle East and North Africa from 9.5 percent to 3.8 percent of the total population from 1910 to 2010, according to a Pew Forum report on Global Christianity.
Tellingly, Israel is the only Middle East country where the Christian population has grown in the last half century, from 34,000 to 158,000, in large measure, according to many observers, because of the religious freedoms enjoyed there.............
Would be a good idea to gift the film to the dumb nuts in your circle of family and friends at Christmastime.
and although Assad's propaganda machines are saying they have retaken the villages from the gangs, I don't believe them ... not after Maaloula. Remember, they said the same thing about Maaloula .... however, Maaloula is still not liberated from terrorists.
From ChristianToday:
Islamist rebels besieged two Christian villages in Syria, killing around 13 people and forcing thousands of families to evacuate their homes.
Militants from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front stormed Saddad and Haffar on Monday last week (21 October). Until then, the villages had been relatively safe, and thousands of internally displaced families had sought refuge there.
A Barnabas Fund partner described the scene as 60 armed vehicles entered Saddad: "As the vehicles and armed personnel made their way through the streets, the shouting of “Allah Akbar” [“Allah is great”] and the touting of the Quran made it clear to both permanent and displaced that their time of relative tranquility was quickly coming to an end. As the armed groups began to set up sniper posts and a campaign of shelling, the day moved from bad to worse."
He said children were crying in fear as the militants took over the villages. It is thought that they were being used as a launching point for strikes against a nearby army base and arsenal. The villages are strategically located between the central city of Homs and the capital Damascus.
Around 13 people were killed, with many more wounded, and while many fled, thousands were held as a human shield.
Our partners helped Christian families to evacuate to neighbouring villages, Homs and Damascus. Barnabas sent funds to provide transport, blankets, food parcels and other essentials........
Two days ago Archbishop of the Orthodox Church made an appeal on behalf of the Christians in the besieged villages:
Appeal from Archbishop Selwanos Boutros for the safety of Christians in Saddad & Homs in Syria.
To all international, humanitarian and religions organizations and institutions and to who have a humanitarian role in the world, To all people with good intentions in the world
I call for you today on behalves of all the innocent people including elders, women, children, young men and women trapped in an areas, where we can’t reach them nor can they reach us in Sadad & Alhafar. I appeal to the groups forbidding them from leaving sieged areas and to negotiate with them an evacuation in a safe way where they wouldn’t be harmed. Allowing them to move to Derattiah direction or in Homs direction where we will be waiting to receive them........
What else is new?
Several men abducted a three-year-old Saudi girl and took turns in raping her before dumping the child near a hospital in a serious condition.
Disclosing the crime on Monday, police said they had arrested three suspects and two women and that more could be arrested in connection with the rape.
Doctors at the hospital in the Western Red Sea port of Jeddah said the child was found crying and in serious condition in front of the hospital on Ramadan 13, adding that she is still in the intensive care unit struggling for her life.
“She has been raped violently by some men. She was found crying of excruciating pain as her body was full of bruises and her sensitive parts were ruptured,” hospital manager Mohammed Ali said, quoted by the Saudi Arabic language daily Okaz.......
and in other news:
........Three Saudi soldiers forced a local teen age girl to give her parents sleeping pills every night and go to a rest house where they took turns in raping her for nearly a month..........
This buffoon said the following about the offensive jihadi mural:
We are satisfied with the responses that have been provided during our preliminary inquiries into your concerns and do not believe that the mural is contrary to City policy or Canadian law.
Bastard!!
No wonder, Italy ... from where according to his last name this man hails from or his ancestors did ... has many of their church compounds and grounds allocated to Muslims for their prayer times. With this mis-manager in charge of the City of Toronto, you can well expect the same to happen here too.
The idiot has not heard about Taqqiyah and the might of Muslim Oscar winning performances in same. Either that or he is not fit to be the manager of the City of Toronto. The mural is an insult to Torontonians and it has to be flushed away.
And while you are reading this gruesome tale, let a parallel thought also run through you. Our damned politicians in the West are in bed with the Muslim Brotherhood. Whether the MB is Egypt-linked, USA-linked, Canada-linked, Australia-linked .... their ideology and their goal remains the same. Don't ever forget that and always be on the look-out to see which of your MPs are meeting with members of the Muslim Brotherhood .... because believe you me, those MPs are compromised and rendered useless to be true patriots. They should be avoided like the plague.
CBS too had a story on the rescued dogs with a vid, but their link seems to be broken now, maybe hopefully it will be fixed later. Unless, the Muslim Brotherhood-USA, with probably a member sitting on the CBS BOD got them to remove the video and the link.
Ari Yashar at IsraelNationalNews:
'Puppy Bombs' Rescued from Egyptian Violence. Two puppies rescued after nearly being used as living firebombs by Muslim Brotherhood.
Two puppies from Egypt were rescued just moments before they were to be used by the Muslim Brotherhood in their protests as "puppy bombs" dipped in gasoline and set on fire.
The revelation about the Brotherhood's cruel tactic used two weeks ago at Tahrir Square during demonstrations against the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi's was made known by Robyn Urman, a pet rescuer in Tenafly, New Jersey, as reported by CBS 2.
Urman, who works with Pet ResQ Inc., was contacted by Mervat Said, an animal rescue volunteer in Egypt, and flew the puppies to New Jersey to find homes.
This is not the first case of dogs being rescued from animal cruelty in Egypt. On June 14, 2013, NECN reported about a litter of seven orphaned puppies who were rescued by Egyptian movie star Phaedra Al Masri. Al Masri also serves as a spokesperson for PETA, and took the dogs in after hearing their mother was poisoned when the puppies were only two weeks old.
In conjunction with the Egyptian Society of Mercy for Animals, Al Masri posted about the dogs through social media sites, and found homes for them in Canada and America.
Protests have shaken Egypt since Morsi was deposed in July, and clashes between police and Brotherhood members have been a frequent occurrence. Just last Friday saw thousands of protesters take to the streets throughout Egypt..........
Iran's new guy orders removal of anti-American posters from the streets of Iran. What does he get in return? Hard-liners scream "not fair." Of course the Iranian government is at fault for the behaviour of the brainwashed people. Wasn't it the govt. itself encouraging the people to have their weekly Friday "curse" marches where the nuts curse Big Satan (USA) and Little Satan (Israel)? Now, with all the kissy-kissy sessions between Iran's honchos and the Obama regime, the haters fear the govt. might take away those enjoyable social gatherings.
Just like how we don't understand why our honchos are arming and funding our enemy Al Qaeda, the Iranians are befuddled at how Big Satan, their favorite toy might be taken away from them.
Politics and Politicians!!!
Jason Rezalan writing at WashingtonPost:
....Supporters of hard-line conservative policies faced a rare public rebuke this week as authorities ordered that anti-American billboards be removed just days after they went up, sparking a fresh round of debate over relations between Tehran and Washington.
Since the relatively moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani took office as president in August, he and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have made several unprecedented gestures toward the United States, including a phone call between Rouhani and President Obama. It was the first direct contact between presidents of the two countries since Iran’s 1979 revolution ousted the shah.
Such diplomatic outreach and the new government’s apparent attempts to quiet anti-U.S. rhetoric have confused and angered supporters of hard-line conservatives who call the United States the “Great Satan” and see any overture to Washington as a betrayal of the principles of the revolution........
From MiddleEastInstitute:
The Tehran municipality has removed anti-American posters from the streets of the capital which questioned US honesty in nuclear talks with Iran, media reported on Sunday.....
From Reuters:
....Ehsan Mohammad-Hassani, head of the Owj Cultural Organisation which produces anti-American material, said on Sunday his group had put up the posters with the permission of the municipality, the Fars news agency said.
He said they had nothing to do with the policies of new President Hassan Rouhani, and had been designed before he took office in August. Hardliners are skeptical of Rouhani's efforts to engage with the West.
"The 'American Honesty' designs do not indicate an opposition to the negotiations of Iranian statesmen with America," Mohammad-Hassani was quoted as saying.
Lurid anti-American graffiti and posters have adorned Tehran and other major Iranian cities for decades. The site of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran depicts the Statue of Liberty with a skull for a face.....
The jihadis coming back to the West from their sojourn in Syria will mean our lunatic asylums are gonna be stock full of loonier jihadis very soon ... and our wonderful govt. won't mind looking after them forever if need be ... but where our senior are concerned, it's off to the Death Panels for them.
Aryn Baker writing at Time:
.... Syria’s Breaking Bad: Are Amphetamines Funding the War? A spike in the trafficking of the illegal drug Captagon, popular in the Middle East, is connected to Syria's brutal civil war.
Fifteen days into his job as Lebanon’s top drug-enforcement official, Colonel Ghassan Chams Eddine got a tip-off that something big was going down at the Beirut shipping port this summer. How big? Nearly 5.5 million tablets of a locally produced amphetamine expertly hidden inside an industrial water heater destined for Dubai. His men had to use acetylene torches to remove the white tablets, each embossed with an off-kilter yin-yang symbol and packed into 1,000-piece units in heat-sealed plastic bags. “The boiler was made in Syria, and the way the tablets were hidden, it was clear that they hadn’t been just stuffed inside,” says Chams Eddine. “That unit was formed around the drugs, at the factory.”
A week later, on Aug. 21, Chams Eddine got another tip-off. Six Syrian-made cargo trucks destined for Saudi Arabia from Lebanon were stopped just as they were about to cross the border. Each of the containers’ steel reinforcing ribs concealed a cleverly designed drawer packed with loose pills — 6 million of them in total. A few days later, a Syrian was caught at Beirut’s international airport with 11,000 tablets hidden in pastries. Then two more Syrians destined for Saudi Arabia were stopped at the airport with 8 kg of the stuff in their luggage.
In one month, Lebanese authorities confiscated more than $200 million worth of a potent amphetamine that is almost entirely unheard of in the West. But in the Persian Gulf, Captagon, as the amphetamine is known, is the most sought-after drug on the street, and the conflict in Syria, with its attendant lawlessness, is making it even easier to obtain........
What can be more wonderful? More headbangers giving up their cult, the less violence we will see.
Khaled Diab writing at Salon:
Is Egypt going through a crisis of faith? During my recent visit to Egypt, I met so many non-believers that it was almost tempting to think that atheism has become the country’s fastest-growing “religion.” In addition, atheists are becoming more confident, assertive and outspoken.
This, for example, is reflected in the daring decision by a group of atheists to submit publicly their demands for the complete secularization of the state — something Islamists, especially ultra-conservative Salafists, passionately oppose — to the committee drafting Egypt’s new constitution.
On a personal level, though I have written about my loss of faith for years in Western publications, I recently “came out” as an atheist/agnostic in an Egyptian newspaper, and the reaction of readers and social media was surprisingly warm and positive.
This conflicts with the mainstream Western view of Arab/Islamic religiosity and fanaticism in which such a confession of faithlessness should have led to a fatwa against me and even my death. But, as I pointed out in my piece, non-believers have always been an integral component of Egyptian society and, after being driven more underground in recent years, atheists have recently been making their presence felt.
How exactly did this occur?
“I reckon the reasons behind the rise in the number of atheists in Egypt are the Muslim Brotherhood and other faith merchants, because people uncovered their lies,” Bassem, an old friend of mine, opined in a Cairo club where we had just watched the World Cup’s curse of the Pharaohs’ afflict Egypt on the soccer pitch yet again.
As I mulled over his point, I was struck that, by pure coincidence, the friends who had gathered round the table were almost all non-believers of one stripe or another.
“I’ve heard many people talking about the rise in .........
In other words, the politicians.
One of the Field Marshall involved in the defeat of the Nazi army is now 90 years old and has not gone senile like most of the law makers in his country who are half his age.
Con Coughlin writing at TelegraphUK:
....We’re fighting bean counters now, says man who helped beat Nazis
Man who helped to defeat the Nazis, and as the head of the Armed Forces planned the daring military campaign to liberate the Falkland Islands
But as Field Marshal the Lord Bramall approaches his 90th birthday, his main concern is that Britain’s military could be facing defeat at the hands of Ministry of Defence bean counters.
In the course of a long and distinguished career, during which “Dwin”, as he is known to his friends, has commanded at every level from leading a humble platoon ashore during the D-Day landings to an armoured division in Germany at the height of the Cold War, Lord Bramall is also well-versed in Whitehall warfare.....
........He is similarly scathing about the cost of replacing the Trident nuclear deterrent, which he argues is irrelevant to modern-day conflict.
“The proof in the pudding was the September 11 attacks. America, for all its omnipotence, was unable to prevent it and then was unable to use its nuclear arsenal to retaliate.
“I do not think we can afford to maintain a nuclear deterrent, and by doing so we are setting an extremely bad example at a time when we are trying to persuade other countries to give them up.”
But his primary concern is the fate of the Army, where he served with distinction for 42 years — rising from second lieutenant in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps to field marshal — and which is now being reduced to its smallest size since the Napoleonic wars.
But it is not the size of the Army alone that concerns him, rather the ability of the 30,000 planned reservists to fill the gap made by the 20,000 regulars who are being jettisoned as part of the budget cuts.........